


Speaking to the Spirits

by Raven_Knight



Series: 2018 Autumn OTP Challenge - Multifandom [31]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Best Friends Looking Out For Each Other, Don't copy to another site, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Gen, Platonic Relationships, Shared Loss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-14
Updated: 2019-04-14
Packaged: 2020-01-13 11:15:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,073
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18467827
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Raven_Knight/pseuds/Raven_Knight
Summary: When Hermione realizes that Harry has vanished from the Halloween Festivities, she searches him out to make sure he's okay. She discovers that someone else had already found Harry and is more than able to help his grief ease.





	Speaking to the Spirits

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. This piece, archived at Archive of Our Own (Ao3), is purely a non-commercial work of fiction from which I am not profiting in any way. This work may not be reproduced, archived, or redistributed by any means and/or in any format without prior written permission from me. Permission may be obtained by contacting me at r4v3n.kn1ght@gmail.com. 
> 
> This series of oneshots belong to the 2018 Autumn OTP Challenge, though I have done away with the OTP part of it and focus instead on either romantic ships I ship or platonic relationships that fit the prompt given. This oneshot is in response to prompt #31: Halloween. ~ RK

**Speaking to the Spirits**  
By  
**Raven Knight**

No one had seen him slip away from the subdued Halloween celebration at the Burrow. Not at first. His absence was noted later, much later in the evening, when people slowly started to leave for home, trickling out of the Weasley house.

Turning to the youngest Weasley, Hermione asked, “Have you seen Harry lately?” She could see Ginny mentally backtracking her steps and interactions through the night, including the moment of realization that she had no positive answer for her question. Ginny shook her head, worry visible in her expression. Hermione set down her drink. “Search the house, I’ll go outside.” Ginny nodded and set off on the search.

Hermione snatched her coat as she walked through the kitchen, not even paying attention to Ron dosing at the table, surrounded by the partially eaten serving dishes of food and treats. She strode out of the warm glow of the house and into the darkness outside. When she was far enough from the door, she called out. “Harry!” She shouted louder and louder the further away from the house she walked, but couldn’t hear any response. Nothing to indicate that her best friend was even still near the Burrow.

She wrapped her coat tighter around her to ward off the chill of that Halloween night. Her foot caught on the uneven grass as the thought slammed into her mind.

Halloween.

Tonight was Halloween.

Hermione berated herself mentally at the obvious connection. She knew where to find Harry. She closed her eyes and disapparated…

…and appeared in a place she and Harry had visited before. Godric’s Hollow.

Hurrying down the street, she frantically searched for him tracing the path they took when they came to Godric’s Hollow on Christmas Eve. She approached the Potter House, and quickly marched past it. He wasn’t there. Hermione knew that Harry had no desire to step into the house where his parents had been murdered by Voldemort, and where he had become an orphan. There were too many horrible memories, too much trauma, in that place.

Breathless from her urgent pace, Hermione reached the graveyard, her mouth open to call for Harry, only to stop short at the sight before her. Harry wasn’t alone. The graveyard was eerily silent, but the conversation carried all the way to her where she stood just inside the entrance.

“—celebrate. Not when they died that night.” Harry looked to his companion, a friend of his for several years, and one who understood his loss.

Luna Lovegood reached out and took his hand. “Do you know the old legend of Halloween?”

Harry laughed bitterly. Hermione’s stomach lurched, knowing that he thought of how, in the Wizarding World, the story of his parents’ deaths was legendary. “The old one? Not really,” he said to her question.

“Shall I tell it to you?” Harry nodded. “It’s said that the spirit world was most closely aligned with the physical world, our world, on Halloween. Of course, it was called Samhain then, but, now it’s Halloween.”

Harry shook his head. “I’m sorry, Luna, I just don’t follow you here.”

Luna touched his shoulder to get him to look at her. “On Halloween, spirits are closest to us. For only one night. So, why waste that time by sending them messages of grief and sadness when you could tell them something else?”

From her vantage point, Hermione saw hope and disbelief clash in Harry’s expression. “Like what?”

“When I’m not sad about mum, I think of how she loved me and dad. How happy I am for that. How I hope to one day be as extraordinary as she was.” Harry looked back at the gravestone of his parents and Luna hesitated. When she spoke again, her voice softened in compassion of loss shared. “They know you miss them, Harry. But until you tell them, they don’t know anything else.”

Harry didn’t say a word as they stood together facing the graves. He stood, frozen, staring at the stone, worrying his bottom lip deep in thought. Luna stood by him, joining him in his vigil. “How do I say something? Out loud or—”

“Well, Dad says the dead talk through nature. Flowers and plants mostly, but that they like flowers best. You know because where we see the flowers we leave them as dying, what’s really happening is the spirits have accepted what you’ve said and taken it back to their world.” Harry nodded. Luna drew her wand. “What is it you want to say?”

Harry looked at her wand, the graves, then back at Luna. “Um…well, I suppose I should start by saying ‘Thank you.’ I mean, without them dying for me, I wouldn’t even be here. So, yeah, that I’m grateful for their love and sacrifice for me.” Luna pointed her wand at the gravestone and quietly began to mutter a spell. Harry, however, continued to speak even as he saw her conjuring peach-colored roses from her wand. “That I’ll always remember their love and what they did.” Pink carnations blossomed among the roses. “And—” Harry cleared his throat of the emotion threatening to choke him. “That thanks to them, I’m happy. I’m finally happy for longer than a few minutes at a time. I have friends that are like family and things are looking right, even though we’ve all lost so much. I’m still, somehow, happy.”

Luna said another spell which resulted in bright yellow tulips blooming in the mixture of the roses and carnations, making a warm, expressive bouquet. “There.” Luna lowered her wand and turned to Harry. “Now they’ll know.”

Harry gazed at the conjured bouquet for a long while before asking, “Why did you pick those flowers?”

Luna shook her head. “I didn’t, Harry. You did.”

Tears blurred Hermione’s vision as Luna’s words registered. Luna knew the language of flowers and plants. She remembered having conjured flowers for Harry’s parents when they went to Godric’s Hollow, but Luna’s gesture carried so much more significance than the comforting of a friend for another. Luna helped Harry find peace, long-lasting peace, where no one else could.

“Thank you, Luna,” Harry said. He looked down and shyly took her hand. Luna shifted closer to him and squeezed his hand. In that moment, something changed between them, something profound.

Hermione, wiping tears from her eyes, turned and left the graveyard with a smile, certain that they would be fine.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading. This fic concludes the Autumn OTP Prompts! I hope everyone enjoyed reading them as I enjoyed writing them! Leave a comment on your way out. Let me know what you thought. Thank you! ~ RK


End file.
